Inn Management (2)
After taking Grace on as an employee, I looked into what staff could actually do — and sure enough, the feature proved every bit as useful as I'd hoped.
First up: employee placement.
Using the Inn Management skill to station an employee somewhere granted a buff suited to that location. When I assigned Grace to the kitchen, a description appeared explaining that cooking speed and the quality of finished dishes would rise on a probabilistic basis.
"The kitchen's finished now anyway, so I'll go make something for you right away, Master."
With that, Grace headed into the kitchen to put the buff to the test. Watching her go, I turned my attention to the other functions.
I can raise an employee's level to improve the quality of their buffs… or just boost physical ability and mana outright. Skills can even appear at random?
None of that was something I could test on the spot. Raising an employee's level required experience — and for Grace, currently stationed in the kitchen, that meant cooking until her experience bar filled. On top of that, an employee's level couldn't exceed the level of the place they were assigned to. In Grace's case, that meant the kitchen's level had to come up first…
And to raise the inn to the next level, I need guests.
The kitchen's level couldn't surpass the inn's, so the inn itself had to level up first.
…Except this was the Dragon Canyon — supposedly one of the most dangerous places in the world. Would anyone actually show up?
"I'm going to lose my mind…"
Should I ask Grace to bring in other dragons as guests? No — better put that off. There was no guarantee every dragon would be friendly toward humans.
The one silver lining…
Neither upgrading the inn nor leveling anything up required capital or materials. If I'd needed timber or stone, I would have had to go out and get them myself.
"…Is there anything else? Anything besides the kitchen I can upgrade…"
Nothing. It looked like new options would unlock one by one each time the inn leveled up, but for now the kitchen was the only thing available.
"…Tch."
Well, having a kitchen at all was better than nothing. From what I could tell, ingredients kept spawning inside it, so at least we wouldn't starve.
That was what I thought — right up until I tasted the soup and bread Grace had prepared.
"…Grace."
"Yes?"
"Why is the bread this hard? And the soup… it doesn't taste like anything."
"I'm sorry, Master. But this was the best I could do. The kitchen has plenty of grains — rice, flour, corn — but no seasonings, vegetables, fruit, or meat. Looking at how the system works, those will probably only appear once the kitchen levels up."
"……"
"Still, if you soak the bread in the soup, it's not too bad."
I tried it her way. I was hungry enough that it was… passable. And then I thought:
I can survive on this. My sanity, though? Not for long.
…It didn't seem like a place guests would come, but I had no choice except to hope they would.
I was chewing on a piece of bread that had softened somewhat in the soup when Grace spoke up.
"Please make do with this for dinner. I'll figure something out for breakfast tomorrow."
"…Figure something out how?"
I asked what she meant — whether she planned to improve the food somehow, or to go gather guests.
"I'm going to stop by my lair."
"Your lair? Ah…"
The lair where she'd originally lived. Her belongings would still be there.
"No. I expect the heroes who attacked me cleaned the place out. But there might still be something left."
"…Sorry."
I apologized, feeling as though I'd just dug into an old wound.
The next morning.
"……"
I opened my eyes to sunlight filtering through the window.
So it wasn't a dream after all.
How much better it would have been if it had been. With that thought, I got out of bed.
…Come to think of it, this bed and these blankets are nicer than when I first saw them.
Grace must have swapped them out. The change had happened before the inn even upgraded.
…Is she back yet?
The night before, once darkness fell, Grace had taken her dragon form and flown off to check on her lair. Judging by what she'd said, she should have returned before morning.
I opened the door to my room and looked down at the first floor.
"…What is all that…"
Unlike yesterday, a pile of odds and ends now occupied the center of the floor.
"You're awake?"
Grace's voice. Judging by the sounds from the kitchen, she was cooking.
Smells good, too. Looks like the trip to her lair paid off.
I used the bathroom, washed my hands thoroughly, and sat down in a suitable chair on the first floor. Then I eyed the clutter strewn across the middle of the room.
…Given the circumstances, Grace had clearly brought it from her lair. Did dragons usually collect junk like this? I'd always imagined them hoarding jewels and artifacts with special powers.
"They may not look like much, but every one of them is the kind of special item you're thinking of."
Whether she'd overheard my thoughts or not, Grace emerged from the kitchen as she spoke. In her hands was a bowl of soup that looked far more appetizing than yesterday's bland fare.
"As expected, my lair had been looted to some extent, so I couldn't bring much. But luckily, some jerky and seasonings were still there."
She said it apologetically, but I had no intention of blaming her. It wasn't her fault, and she was doing her best for me. So I resolved to enjoy the soup.
"……"
That resolve wavered the moment I took a spoonful.
"Haha… a little bland, right?"
"Yeah…"
I couldn't lie. She'd read my mind either way.
"By 'seasoning,' you just meant salt?"
Today's soup was basically yesterday's soup with jerky tossed in and a sprinkle of salt. The jerky did release some juices when I chewed it, but that was about all it had going for it.
"Seasonings are luxury goods in this world. Salt is relatively common compared to the rest, but everything else had been taken."
Hearing that, those so-called heroes started to sound less like champions of justice and more like bandits. Raid Grace's home, drive her out, and make off with everything of value…
"Just out of curiosity — do you know why those heroes attacked you?"
"Yes. I believe they were after the title of Dragon Slayer. They came into my lair shouting that as they attacked me, so I'm fairly certain."
"Dragon Slayer? Does killing a dragon grant a title the way my status window works?"
"Yes. Killing a dragon is said to grant the Dragon Slayer title, and the effects are quite powerful. That said… if they were heroes from the empire where my lair was located, they were probably after the secondary benefits that come with the title rather than the title's effects themselves."
Secondary benefits?
"In the empire, Dragon Slayers receive a lifelong pension — enough to live in comfort without ever working again."
"A pension…"
A suddenly, jarringly realistic word. So those heroes had tried to kill Grace just so they could loaf around for the rest of their lives? And since Grace had survived by contracting with me, they never got the title…
As we talked, the soup in my bowl gradually disappeared. It still didn't taste like much, but conversation made it a little easier to get down.
"…So until the inn upgrades again, we're stuck with soup like this."
"Yes…. Making soft bread or proper rice with nothing but the grain the kitchen keeps producing is impossible at this stage. If any of the artifacts I brought had something to do with cooking, that would help, but…"
"Artifacts?"
"Yes. Those."
Grace pointed at the junk scattered across the middle of the first floor.
"Those are artifacts?"
"Yes. For example…"
She held up a scrap of paper that looked like trash.
"This is a scroll that summons a tidal wave capable of submerging an entire village."
"…Huh?"
Next she showed me a twig that looked ready to snap at any moment.
"This isn't the genuine article, but it's a branch that once killed a god."
"…Don't tell me — Mistilteinn?"
"No. There is a spear by that name in this world, but it's a different item."
Then she held up a dull, cloudy orb.
"This one might actually be useful to you, Master. Just keeping it on your person automatically wards off anything that would harm its owner. From what I know, it's fairly sturdy. It wouldn't stop a full-power attack from a dragon like me, but…"
"…Why were things like that still sitting intact in your lair? You said the heroes looted the place."
"They only took whatever looked expensive. And to begin with, I deliberately disguised the truly dangerous items — things that should never be released into the human world — to look worthless. Even if I died, I hoped they'd be dismissed as junk and never circulate. That gambit seems to have worked."
"…So the powerful artifacts survived. The problem is they're so powerful that almost none of them are usable for me."
Still, the orb Grace handed me was welcome. Carrying it meant I was a little safer than before.
"That's about all you'd find useful, Master. As for the rest… may I borrow one of the rooms on the second floor? I'll hide them there for now."
"Do as you like."
For the time being, only Grace and I would be using the second floor anyway. That might change once the inn upgraded — but upgrades required guests.
"…It always comes back to guests."
That was when it happened.
"Boss! There's an inn out here?!"
"You're right! There was nothing here a few months ago!"
"Wooaaah! Let's go in!"
Contrary to my assumption that no one would pass through this area, it turned out potential customers weren't entirely nonexistent.
"Welco… me."
I started to greet the people coming through the door — and then froze.
"Wooaaah! Innkeeper! We want to rest here a bit before we move on!"
Because the guests weren't human.
"Ah, yes… however, the rooms suitable for resting are under construction at the moment, so lodging may be difficult."
I hedged, given that the upper floor wasn't available to guests yet.
"Kwahaha! The sun's still high — we weren't planning to sleep here, innkeeper!"
"Just pile the food on!"
"You got any of that stuff? Eternal Stew!"
The guests settled roughly into the chairs on the first floor without a care.
…They're all armed, but I'm not scared.
Having seen Grace's overwhelming bulk, I found myself able to stay relatively calm even facing a group of well-built, weapon-carrying figures.
"We don't have any meat at the inn right now. Would bread and soup be all right?"
"Wooaaah! No meat?!"
"No way! If there's no meat, forget it! We'll just eat the jerky we brought and be on our way!"
And so spoke the inn's first guests: a party of orcs.